(02-12-2021 02:47 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(02-12-2021 02:18 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(02-12-2021 01:55 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(02-12-2021 11:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(02-12-2021 11:35 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  LaSalle is in dire straits and think if ODU wanted it, it would be likely be accepted into the A10.

UMass would advocate for them, URI AD is a former UMass football player and would probably support ODU.

Regarding the other FCS football universities, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham and Richmond not sure but don't think there would not be strong objections, which could be won over. All the DC, Virginia, and NC teams would probably be OK with the travel. The hard convincing would be St. Bonaventure, St. Joes, and St Louis.

Think the Monarch's previous NCAA success, even team members would aide to the likely (over 50%) chance of ODU replacing LaSalle.

Why would St. Joe's have a problem? Pretty easy trip for them and we have scheduled multiple H/Hs with them OOC in recent history so there is likely a good relationship. Richmond is a gimme. That is a 1 hour trip and pretty much guaranteed to replace 2 non-TV games with 2 TV games. How many do you need in the A10? Just a simple majority?

My concern would be if the small Northeast Catholic schools would balk at adding two large South-facing publics, especially if La Salle or Fordham leave. I know the A-10 isn't an exclusively private conference but the shift in geography and diversification of institution type were drivers in the Big East/AAC split.

Right now, the A10 has seven schools north of the Mason-Dixon line, five schools south, and two to the west. The private/public split is 10/4. An ODU+Charlotte add changes both significantly, even more so if a private or two leave.

The CAA lost the thread of its plot by overexpanding, which led to the heart of the conference (ODU, VCU, George Mason) leaving.

Overexpansion is not what led to the CAA exodus. You are way overthinking this. The public/private thing is not a thing at all. If Lasalle or Fordham leave we only need 7 votes... if both leave we may only need 6 votes depending on how they break a tie... VCU, UR, GMU, GW, Davidson are 100%. So UMass and URI or St. Joe's would be all we'd need. The UMass guy seems to think UMass and URI are locks. St. Joes is a basketball school with basketball alumni and basketball donors. They think/want to think their peer and archrival is Villanova. They are not going down with Fordham and LaSalle. What would the Catholic's alternative be for replacement? Any NE Catholic school worth a darn is already in the Big East. Lehigh and Lafayette from the Patriot league?

Adding Georgia State and the Northeast schools doubled the size of the CAA footprint without a resultant increase in revenue. VCU and George Mason had been rumored for a while to be exploring their options. ODU elevated its football to FBS way ahead of schedule because they had no confidence in the CAA's viability going forward. You think that all happened in a vacuum?

We don't know that La Salle and Fordham are leaving. Basketball fans want Fordham to leave but they've been in the conference for 20-some years and while La Salle allegedly looked at downgrading a few years ago, nothing came of it. If it looked like the A-10 was fixing to become a more-public, further-South conference, that might nudge them out the door, but for now there's a lot more schools that look like them than there are ones that look like ODU and Charlotte. Why would they support adding two more mouths to feed that have nothing in common with them? That'd be like ODU pushing for CUSA to add New Mexico State and Texas State.

Basketball is important but conferences are more than basketball and football scheduling alliances. Geography, institutional congruity and academics are big factors, because it's the school presidents that make the call.

Nah. You're contradicting yourself. VCU & GMU didn't leave the CAA for the A10 for cultural fit or because it was expanding, they left for better basketball. The A10 likewise didn't bring them, along with Davidson in for cultural fit the did it for basketball. I'm not saying the things you're mentioning aren't important. But keeping the A10 where it is in the basketball hierarchy seems to be the most important thing. ODU left the CAA because VCU & GMU were leaving and we saw an opportunity to upgrade to FBS.

I don't see the A10 expanding to 15 or 16 but it might happen as a replacement scenario.